Neo Earth

Monday, February 28, 2011

Science class, Febuary 17


On Thursday, February 17, Ms.D. gave our quest back. We just finished the section on forces.

Just to remind us this is what we learned about:

Newton’s Three laws:

1) Inertia: Things that are at rest stay at rest, and things that are moving will keep moving unless another forces act on them.

2) Acceleration depends on the object’s mass and on the net force acting on the object.

3) Action and Reaction: If one object exerts a force on another object, then the second object exerts a force of equal strength in the opposite direction on the first object.

The other forces we learned about are: air resistance, gravity, friction, speed and velocity.

Another important law we learned about was the law of conservation of momentum, which says ‘that the total momentum of any group of objects remains the same, or is conserved, unless out side forces act on the object.



Then Ms.D. explained to the class the goal of our next lab. The goal is going to be making simple machines, and the surprise was that before this lab we are going to make our own super hero, Yeah (scream). We had to design and name a Science Superhero and how this super hero saved the day.


She recommended that his/her power had to be scientific and it had to have at least 5 Superpower. Some examples of his super power would be:


· Decreasing / increasing the speed of an object


· Changing the velocity (speed or direction) of an object


· Changing the friction between two objects


· Conserving / “losing” momentum


· Instantaneous temperature change ( + or -)


· Affecting the weight and gravity of a place



It wouldn't make sense to make a superhero in science class without having scientific powers.


Usually we find superheroes in cartoons, movies and books. But they don’t always use scientific superpower. A good example of a superhero is Superman. He flies in the air without any machine and the gravity doesn’t pull him down.


Our superhero must include laws and forces 0f science like the ones we learned about.



After Ms.D. showed as hers super hero, which she made it just yesterday. She told as that the super hero must be printed in color, and if we though we would lose our super hero she recommended to leave it with her. We went to the upper lab in till the end of the block. When we will came back from the break we will create or story of how our super hero saves the day.






Important Links


Next Scribe is ............ Tamara!!!

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Science Day/ Science Class 10 of February

Today we had Science Day/Normal Science Class!

We had a lot of fun showing little kids the experiments we did over the year and I think that they also enjoyed it. We had 1st Grade come in and then the 2nd Grade as well as 3rd Grade! The presentation was divided in four stations; Newton's Laws, Balloon Rocket Challenge, Friction Lab, and Class Blog!


Newton's Laws Station. The image shows Newton's First Law Inertia.














Balloon Rocket Challenge Station. The image shows how the Balloon Rocket can teach us about the Three Laws of Newton and why these laws are important to know in order to build a rocket.















Friction Station. The image shows how objects create friction when rubbing against each other.

















The Blog Station. This image shows a presenter at the blog station after a hard day's work, teaching about the importance of blogging!








The presentations and stations were taking place in rooms 303 and 302 (Mr.Lewis and Mrs.Lewis). The times of the presentations were at 9-10am and 17:00-18:30pm. The morning presentations were for 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, and 3rd Grade, while the afternoon ones were for the whole school including parents!



The students were divided into four groups that presented every challenge. The morning presentations had an extra presentation on our famous CLASS BLOG! The afternoon groups look like this:

1. Ghazaleh-Tamara-Davide
2. Jakub-Ben-Valentina
3. Karin-Nathan-Emilija
4. Courtney-Chiara-David

We all had a lot of fun! At least I did! We all had a chance to look at the 8th and 6th Grade Science Experiments and Projects!

In Class we talked a little about science day and then we looked over our vocabulary!

Momentum: The product of an objects mass and velocity.

Law of Conservation: The rule that in the absence of outside force the total momentum of objects that interact does not change.

Momentum= mass x velocity

Momentum= p
Mass= m
Velocity= v

Here is a link to Moodle:


Next Scriber is... Chiara!

The link does not work! I have no idea why!!

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Tuesdays Science Class


On Tuesday we had a long class, which was an hour and thirty minutes. At the beginning of the class we got our blog rubrics back to see how well we did on our comment. We discussed our 7th grade blog, as well as the 8th graders blog. When we were finished discussing about the blogs, we then talked about SCIENCE DAY! Science day will be this Thursday, tomorrow, and there will be viewers all the way from teachers, to our parents friends coming. We will show our viewers some of the labs we worked on this past school year, including the lab we just did, the Balloon Rocket Challenge. On Tuesdays class we also talked about a new topic, to us, and it is called Momentum. We discussed Momentum, the Conservation of Momentum, the Collisions With Two Moving Objects, One Moving Object, and With Connected Objects.
  • Momentum: is a characteristic of a moving object that is related to the mass and the velocity of the object.
  • Momentum=Mass *(times) Velocity or P=M *(times) V
  • More Mass= More Momentum
  • More Velocity= More Momentum
  • Momentum may be transferred from one object to another, but is not changed!
  • Conservation of Momentum states that, in the absence of outside forces, the total momentum of objects does not change. The amount of momentum is the same before and after they interact.
  • Collisions With Two Moving Objects= The impact of two moving objects
  • Collisions With One Moving Object= The impact with one moving object
  • Collisions With Connected Objects= The impact of connected objects
For homework, we have to answer the math sheet Ms. D. gave us at the end of class, and we have to finish writing the final design in the Balloon Rocket Challenge lab. At the bottom of the page there will be a link to moodle, in case anyone lost their homework sheet.

http://zagreb.ceesa.net/course/view.php?id=188


(The homework is the most recent thing on moodle, and will be highlighted in orange at the bottom of the page)

I hope you enjoyed reading my blog post, and hope that you learned something new!
Next Scriber is....Emilija!

Monday, February 7, 2011

Science Class - February 3rd, 2011

In Thursdays class we did the final tests of the Balloon Rocket Lab. In this lab we needed to design a balloon rocket that either went the farthest or went the fastest speed. Each group had their own design and each of these was tested three times. Each of the groups testings went well. Each group measured time (seconds), distance( meters) and calculated their rocket's average speed (m/s). To calculate speed you need to use the formula distance divided by time. You can see the version of the speed formula we use in Ms. D's class below. It tells you how to solve for distance, time or speed using the triangle method.
Every group used only one balloon, even though we were allowed to use two
in total. One group used 1.5 straws and the other three groups used 1 straw
each. The amount of tape also was different for every group. In my group we
used one straw and one balloon. Our rocket went an average distance of
19.65 m, in an average time of 7.56 s, which calculates to an average speed of
2.59 m/s. Our team didn't win, but we didn't lose either.
(Pictured here: Ben, Nathan, David)


This group win in the distance but it took them a lot of time

(pictured here: Tamara, Vale, Emilija)

This group that is my group won in speed

(Pictured here: Chiara,Jakub, Ghazaleh)

The way that we are suppose to finish this lab is to first finish finding the averages, the second step is that you have to have IV, DV, CV, UV and, the third one is that you have to draw a force diagram for are final balloon rocket (the final design). and the last three steps are the questions that was all. Thia are the questions:




    1. Use Newton’s Three Laws of Motion to explain the motion of the balloon rocket from launch until it comes to a stop. All three must be mentioned and discussed. Keep in mind the scientific vocabulary you need to include in your writing!
    2. If you had the opportunity to design your rocket one more time, what would you change and why?
    3. NASA and the ESA are looking for new designs for rockets and space crafts in the future. Based on what you learned in this lab, what are some factors these two organizations need to keep in mind for their possible designs? Keep in mind Newton’s Three Laws and scientific vocabulary when answering this question.
You could use Moodle because you can find the lab sheet that include the grading sheet, the question.



  • Examples of Balloon Rockets check out this site because you can sea another design of rocket balloon.





  • http://www.scienceforamerica.com/technology-integration/lesson-rocket-balloon-variables.html This site talk about the variables of the this lab.




    1. THE NEXT SCRIBER IS COURT!!!!!!!!